On Balance | A US hell-bent on destroying China is only hurting itself
- Bloodthirsty US politicians driven by their misunderstanding of America’s China challenge are acting in ways that are in fact detrimental to US interests
- That’s not helping the US, which has serious problems of its own
No one on the USCC is a panda hugger, and Schriver is one of the more hawkish members, but the question still seemed a step beyond its usual lines of inquiry. Their hearings are more valuable than the many congressional hearings about China because even the most hardline positions aired in this forum are usually grounded in research and reflection, whereas the latter often feature performances of spectacular rhetorical overreach.
The US does indeed need to do more to address the challenge that China poses, but Washington should be more realistic about the nature of the relationship.
Biden administration officials will insist that the US and China are “strategic competitors”. But Schriver’s question should be seen as one of many indications that this is a full-scale bilateral rivalry. Others will insist we can’t call it a “cold war” because the two countries are so economically interdependent, but that term is still more accurate than those President Joe Biden’s diplomats try to apply.